Seeking His Kingdom First, Learning From the Persecuted Church

I have been asking God to show me what it looks like for me to seek Him first in this season of my life. I want to be a good steward of the things in front of me: the home God’s given me, the gifts I have and most of all the hearts He’s placed in my path. But in order for “all these things to be added unto me” I must seek Him first. How?

I found that my quiet time was good for my soul, but not really meeting the stipulation of seeking Him first. When I walked away from my chair it took considerable effort to keep Jesus’ words on the forefront of my mind. I have no lack of “Kingdom work” possibilities in front of me, fellowship with the body, prayers to attend do and reminders on my phone telling me not to forget any of my spiritual responsibilities. But how do I seek him through and even before all of these things.

Then the most recent issue of Voice of the Martyrs landed in my mail box. This particular issue focused on the spread of the Word of God in China. The entire thing from front to back ignited my heart. I don’t always connect with it so well, but this time I was reminded of why I love God’s Word so much!

In particular there was a woman who had been healed form incurable diseases and her family saved as a result. Since she had been ill, she was poorly educated. To practice, she would copy scripture every time she could get a snippet of it. She copied pieces of the Bible when ever she could get them, over and over and over again. And now that ill, uneducated girl is a thriving, Bible teacher in her older years. That is the power of the Word of God!

It reminded me of the movie the Book of Eli and true stories of people who didn’t get to keep their Bible. They clung to every bit that they could remember. I wondered, if I had my Bible taken away tomorrow, how much would I remember? Now, I used to be pretty killer at memorizing verses in Awana. But something struck me as different about those in persecuted areas in the way they soak up scripture. They recognize it for what it is - a true source of life!! I have not had the same fervor for the Truth lately. They commit it to memory, they pass copies secretly among churches and copy it again and again and again.

And for now, this is how I’m seeking God and His Kingdom in this season. Not only am I reading God’s Word to find Him in it, but I want to use my eyes, my head, my heart and my hands to scribe his words on the page and into my heart. On and off I have used scripture writing plans from another Christian blogger. So I grabbed the ones for May for myself and my kiddos and started that. But by the grace of God, my hunger for Truth wasn't quite satisfied so I just started writing 1 John as well.

As a Charlotte Mason inspired home-educator, I know the value of transcription. Well done copywork requires my children to notice more things that a simple reading would do: how the punctuation effects the phrasing, thinking about meaning as you spell at the words, reading the phrase and repeating as you write. Our brain can tap in several anchors to really scale a passage when we go through the process!

I was telling Nic about all of this and he reminded me of the Martin Luther saying (which it turns out Charles Spurgeon most likely interpreted from a shorter statement), that he had so much business to work at he absolutely must spend three hours in prayer first. And Nic was right on. If I am going to have any wisdom regarding how to tackle the list and the loves in front of me, I absolutely must devote time to seeking Him first, however that might look in each season.

Anyways, this is just what God has been teaching me lately. What about you? What does seeking Him first look like in your life in this season? Anyone want to join me writing God’s word, even if it’s not a long-term thing?

Resources:
Inscribe the Word - scripture writing plans for adults & children
Voice of the Martyrs